#sky lore

[baudshaw]

1. Isle being forested. Mounds are in the background.

2. Isle had more land that’s now covered by the clouds.

3. The child (probably the King) is with other children, alongside a guardian of sorts.

4. The child looks at an Abyss-style manta..

5. The guardian looks angry, and is presumably from Vault.

6. More multi-wing mantas are being shown.

7. The boat heads to the flourishing Isle Temple, with isle being shown.

8. “Many years later”… so it’s definitely canon

9. “The story continues” the most interesting part to me. The Two Embers will not only have a story that connects with the game, but it sounds like the “start”. Maybe Two Embers will appear to people who haven’t played Sky, causing them to watch the show before playing the game?

Side note: There are human sounds, and the music is a combination of “Overture” and “The Invention” (forest elder theme)

#AAAAH #ITS HERE #CRUMBS WE HAVE #CRUMBS #IM EATING THE MOST DELICIOUS CRUMBS #sky cotl #sky children of the light #thatskygame #sky: children of the light #sky #sky:cotl #sky: cotl #that sky game #sky lore

[babbletaels]

I'm not well versed in the lore of sky. But.

You go to eden, give one of your wing light to each of the statues, then you die, because you lost all your winged light, and become a statue too. You fall into darkness. But what's that over there? A glowing thing? You go towards it. Though it looks sort of different, it's definitely a winged light. You take its hand just like you've taken so many other winged lights hands. But then you give it a hug and it merges with you. Not with your cape, but you. You break free from your statue, and all the statues you gave a wing light to break free too! You fly to orbit together.

So.. where did that winged light come from? I don't believe it's the prince Alef like some say. It's a winged light. It was - figuratively not literally - given to you by another skykid running through eden. And that skykid will lose all their light, die, and find a winged light. That winged light was given to them by another skykid, who lost theirs and died.

It's an endless cycle of self sacrifice. A cycle of love. A cycle of I would die for you, will you die for me, or rather, someone else like me? And the answer is yes, over and over.

#sky: cotl #sky lore #sky cotl #sky children of the light #skyblr

[bearandmoon]

A story behind the mask 🦌

#sky children of the light #sky cotl fanart #concept art #illustration #sky cotl #sky fanart #skychildrenoflightfanart #sky星を紡ぐ子どもたち #creature design #sky lore

[manuellarts]

Sunshine ☀️

Kid and Teth 💞

Kid doesn't like to see Teth upset, especially when it rains worse than usual. He thinks that flowers can make her smile 💞

Kid is a character in a series I am working on on Tiktok, called "Awakening", and it is also on Youtube. It's a series based on the lore created with my friends, adapted into a story. Do check it out ! It's still in the works and I promise it's worth it 💞

#art #awakening #drawing #artist #artists on tumblr #digital drawing #manga #fanart #digital art #digital artist #that sky game #sky lore #sky cotl teth #sky cotl #sky cotl fanart #kid #sky children fanart #sky children of the light #forest elder #sketch #sketching #teth

[thewoodbine]

New Sky Children of the Light players, I need you guys to know that whoever says " oh Sky Lore IS this-" and then proceeds to tell you what the game means is just giving their personal theory. Very very little has been actually confirmed. Half of the fun is deciding what all the symbolism and hints mean to you and putting that story together yourself. At least until more info is revealed. So if you don't like someones interpretation, remember they probably are guessing.

#sky children of the light #sky cotl #Moth #that sky game #thatskygame #sky lore #cozy games

[inkuboa]

I've got no idea if people already know about this but I accidentally found a sky concept art that I had never seen before (by only writing season of assembly but that's not important).

(Concept art by Ash)

Dark stone clams?

#sky cotl #sky children of the light #that sky game #sky lore #sky cotl lore #help i got no idea of how to formulate anything well

[catofaurora]

This one goes out to @whitebookposts whom without I would never know of the Samekh Priestess Sky lore~

#cat of aurora #priestess #samekh #sky cotl priestess #sky cotl lore #sky children of the light #that sky game #sky cotl art #thatskygame #sky lore #skyblr #sky cotl #sorry it just a doodle

[whitebookposts]

Um question

during one of my “endlessly scrolling through tumblr looking at people’s opinions on Sky lore” nights I noticed one of your posts about a Valley Priestess? Several other people had drawn/talked about Valley Priestess and I am incredibly confused as to who she is

*RUNS FULL SPEED AT YOU *GRABS YOU OH MY DEAR FRIEND YOU HAVE **NO** IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE JUST AWAKENED. PRIESTESS IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER EVER AND MY HYPERFIXATED ASS WILL TALK ABOUT HER JUST GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY.

SIT DOWN FELLA THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG ONE.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Let's go back in time, circa 2017-2018, when Sky was still in development, and was yet to hit the shelves. During that time, TGC presented their pre-release concepts of what was back then known as Sky: Light Awaits, at CAFA GAME ART 2018 exhibition, held at Cetral Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China from september 8 to October 7. In that exhibition, TGC presented the crowd with a bunch of concept art, story directions and ideas, and some world-building of their upcoming game. If you are interested in seeing the exhibits TGC put up, you can check those links:

1. Layout 2. World overview 3. Storyline 4. World Map 5. Character Designs 6. Level designs 7. Interaction and customization 8. Journey comparison 9. Bits and pieces

However, for the specifc question you asked, we need to focus on number 3. Storyline. More specifically, this bit right here:

You see this? Right here? "Descendants summon and challenge and ancient (priestess)" YUP, THERE SHE IS, RIGHT HERE!! That is one of the first, and frankly, the last times she gets officially mentioned. Why? Because she was replaced by the Valley twins. That is also why the twins share one name: Samekh, because they used to be one elder, to whom this name belonged. How do we know this? Because in the concept art where the twins start to appear, they are both labeled Samekh... Just like in this very little and crunchy concept art:

You see her? In the corner?

There she is! As we can see, this singular figure is also labeled Samekh. And since we know that Samekh is the name of the valley elders and the singular Valley elder for the Priestess, we can conclude this is a concept art of her :) if you want to know more about elders' names, you can always check out Grandpa's (@grapeless-seeds) very neat doc right here!

Now, you may be asking: "If she is just a scraped elder that was already replaced by other elders, how did she resurface again?" That is a very good question! And it has a VERY long and VERY interesting history behind it.

Despite her being in the concept art, not many acknowledged her existence, moreover being anyway related to the current Valley elders. Even though many asked themselves the question "Why were there two Valley elders, and why are they so much younger than the rest of them?", a big part of the fandom agreed on the headcanon that the twins were simply two parts of one being who got split. And so, Priestess laid dormant in the discarded concept art. But things were about to change.

Let's jump into the future, circa 2020-2021, when the fandom's love for lore and elders was at it's height. Theories were flowing left and right, and as you know, Sky lore enjoyers often dig through countless concept art for crumbs of lore we usually don't get in the game. And one of said concepts through which a certain group of people dug through was the concept of Priestess. Unconciouslly, her image rooted itself in the minds of elder lore enthusiasts.

In 2020, Grandpa, who was a pretty influential Sky artist and theorist on Skyblr and the western Sky fandom, posted this headcanon on her twitter:

This, as far as I'm aware, was one of the first instances of the idea that not only the twins aren't just two halves of one being, but that they are actually children of an elder long gone: the Priestess.

Soon enough after it, a sketch by @artificial-radiance Was posted on Skyblr, featuring this idea yet again.

While the headcanon was still really obscure, it did manage to trickle down into the hearts of some very passionate (and lowkey insane) people, like me. I mean, How could it not! It was a perfect setup for drama, mystery, and the "dead mom" trope! It could finally give a much spicier explanation for the twins being younger than the rest of the elders than the "split theory" we knew beforehand. And a few more fan arts and headcanons started showing up, here are some examples:

(two old sketches by me, inspired by artificial radiance)

(a short comic by @dogedepan also inspired by artificial radiance)

As you can see, back then the design for her was really close to the single concept art piece we had - a hooded silhouette with not a lot of unique features.

The awareness of Priestess and the idea of her being the mother of the current Valley elders rooted itself stronger. But you know what really made it bloom?

Eldertwt.

Eldertwt was a joke roleplay a bunch of sky fans started on Twitter dot com, where each created a profile after an elder or a Sky spirit, interacting and making a bunch of shenanigans. The whole thing was filled with deez nuts and gay jokes, and it really didn't seem to be going anywhere serious...

Until, Grandpa, yet again, dropped a priestess bomb. In a, surprisingly, heartwrenching Eldertwt storyline (no I'm serious, you HAD to be there when it went down), Grandpa introduced Priestess again, finally forever basing Priestess as an existing character and the mother of the twins. With Grandpa drawing her in her style, a change in the way she was drawn was done

(credit to @grapeless-seeds)

And many who proceeded to draw her for Eldertwt based on Grandpa's design really hammered it down. Here are some examples

(credit to @dogedepan)

(credit to @fiomeras)

(credit to @krillcandles)

(credit to @thatskymoz)

As you can see, Priestess went from a hooded silhouette in a crunchy concept art into a full-fledged character with hair, face, and personality. With Priestess stopped being an obscured piece of concept art, she found her way into the hearts of many.

Before long, the simple little headcanon grew into a full-fledged fanon, with fanart, theories, ships, and fanfics being produced with priestess as a character in them. And honestly? This perhaps was one of the most favorite things I got to experience in Sky fandom. How a bunch of strangers came together and out of pure love and interest took a piece of concept art and a little text that never made it past development, and turned it into a full, recognizable character. And yes, this fanon might not be the most popular, and most people still go by the "split elder" theory for twins. But Priestess is THERE. She is no longer a forgotten and discarded piece of art. She is a character who holds importance to many, including me.

And you might say "Well, isn't it silly, to turn a character that doesn't even exist in the final game into a full-fledged fanon?" And you would be right, it is silly. But it's fun. And in a game like Sky, where most of what we know is through concept art, is it really a stretch to give importance to a piece of it?

Besides... Once you learn about Priestess...

You start to notice that perhaps, she isn't gone from the game entirely 😉

Anyway, I hope I answered your question! SOryy for making this SO long, it's just I love this character so so so so much, AND the history behind her is fascinating!!!

#sky: cotl #sky: children of the light #sky cotl #sky children of the light #thatskygame #that sky game #sky: the more you know #sky lore #thatskygame lore #priestess my beloved #sky priestess #valley elders #valley of triumph #valley twins #samekh #priestess samekh

[king-frostshiver]

WAKE UP SKYKIDS NEW LAUNCH TRAILER JUST DROPPED

Need to do a analysis on it later because I'm a ✨Lore Enthusiast✨✨

GO WATCH IT PLE

#sky children of the light #that sky game #skyblr #sky cotl #that sky game lore #sky lore #Youtube

[defining-skyology]

Defining Darkness.

I need to decide what I want to do here.

I could just tell you what I think the Answer (to each topic) is, and what led me to that. But instead, I want to ask as many questions as possible. If I'm alone in my echo chamber, I need to be my own worst enemy, the most thorough critic possible. I want to make this fun (for me).

So let's strip this down to the most barebones it can be, and dive into the wonderful world of Lexicology: the study of words.

Darkness.

Darkness, according to Wikipedia, is defined as:

A lack of illumination

An absence of visible light, or

or a surface that absorbs light.

Darkness is a concrete, normal concept about real life, but it has transcended beyond its immediate definition to become a steeple of powerful metaphors expressing endless bounds of human emotion.

Darkness is used to paint a picture of evils, unknowns, dangers beyond the warmth of the sun. Darkness eats the sun, holds it hostage and drains hope, love, and joy. Darkness wants, it hungers, and it schemes. It has a plan. And worst of all, it's very patient.

...at least in writing.

Darkness can mean anything a writer wants it to mean, so it can mean all of those, and it could mean none of those!

Our job as Lore theorists, is to observe what this word means to Sky, and what picture should be painted in our head when we try to understand exactly, just what 'darkness' is.

{{{Continue Reading}}}

Because to the unaware, when they first hear of a "Darkness" in Sky, their minds go to every far corner possible that I had just poetized above.

There is an inescapable tendency among fanfic writers and OC designers to relish and drool over the idea of 'the bad guy'. We are craving an antagonist, and we paint them in our thoughts the moment a crumb of content leans in that direction.

And even better than an antagonist; we are itching for an antihero. For some kind of 'opposite' side against the light. Something to represent our rebellions and battles in real life as we rage against the machine, for whatever our machines are.

"Dark" creatures, "dark" skykids, "dark" elders; a world of possibility opens up and we just can't help ourselves, not even the devs!

[Official Sky concept art by Tom Zhao]

But enough about Lexicology (the study of words (if you forgot)).

What about what we can actually see in person? (In game)

As we begin to observe the world around us, we have an immediate official Rule that every theorist seems to agree on:

If it hurts your Light, it's Darkness.

[By the way, damage to your Flame is not damage to your Light. This will someday make sense later.]

The game warns us early on to 'protect your Light', and as we travel through the realms we find creatures that attack us; creatures that the game warns in loading screens are 'dark' entities, "hungry for your light". The rainfall and sludge in wasteland are also harmful to your Light, showing that Darkness may be carried in water.

Within this rule we now have a small list of Things-That-Hurt-Us:

Forest rain

Wasteland water

Darkness crabs

Dark Dragons (Krill)

Shardfall, and Dark Shards

And for the loremoffy, that leaves them with a bunch of questions and dots to connect. Starting with the creatures on the list, we're instantly alarmed, especially as moths entering the false temple for the first time. These two 'enemies' are canonically named by quests and loading screens as 'dark' creatures. "Are they dark evil minions of the bad guy??" gasps the moth, audibly. They certainly seem evil, attacking you with no [some] hesitation. If they are 'a part of' the Darkness, then that seems to guarantee the Darkness wants/exists to attack Light.

And what of signs of 'evil' darkness that don't appear to hurt you?

Darkness plants, also canonically named so, don't hurt you, but, foreign and invasive in appearance and nature, they do seem to be uninvited guests in a land that didn't really expect them. They appear in places that are wet and dimly lit, and have been seen to trap exposed light, be that smaller creatures of Light, memories of Light (released by Shardfall or memory/spirit quests), and lastly, the spirits of Ancestors, who's shells have been cracked and exposed to the Darkness.

The plants appear to keep and store Light, mostly inside small orb-like sacs. This along with the fact that it traps Beings of Light and memories of Light, seems to show that whatever this 'Darkness' is, it doesn't 'get rid' of Light, but rather bury it, keeping it perpetually contained, encased within a strange tomb indefinitely.

More official concept art by Tom Zhao

These things are slowly and painfully choking the land, killing whatever still dares to perch on the ground. They may or may not be 'evil', but whatever they are, they're a plague, a disease. Are they what make the Dark creatures the way they are, or do Dark creatures and Dark plants all appear because of something deeper down the rabbithole?

We follow the trail of Darkness, worse and worse as we grow near its source, and find that the worst of the Darkness comes from the ruined kingdom's heart of society. Whatever Darkness is, the Ancestors obviously seem to have something to do with it. From here the lore moth can trail down a few paths. The Ancestors were either the direct cause of this Darkness, or created it by accident. It was either directly connected to whatever they were doing, or they didn't expect Darkness to be a factor at all. Regardless, we'll look at why Darkness is on another day.

But What is it?

The goal of an Answer is to be able to summarize everything you know about a subject, into a bitesize, consumable, tolerable answer. And to answer what Darkness is, after all of this blog-long research and meditation; one specific word is the Answer.

noun

noun: pollution

the presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance or thing that has harmful or poisonous effects.

Pollution is the word that matches everything we know about the way this Darkness spreads. It has been introduced into the environment by the Ancestors, and is affecting the world. Pollution contaminates and poisons, killing the world with no intent of its own, but destroying everything nonetheless. This is the perfect word for what we've seen in our journey so far.

But how does this tie back in to the beginning of this post?

We had determined that the possible definitions of Darkness ellicit:

Lack of Light

Opposite of Light

An Evil

Absorption/Burying of Light

We are beginning to find that Darkness in the world of Sky does not 'lack' Light, as it instead traps and stores Light in a perpetual sleep.

🚫 [Darkness]: a lack of Light

We have also found that, being released by the Ancestors of the ancient kingdom, Darkness is not seemingly malicious, but instead a force, a storm, almost 'natural' in its ways, with no conscious mind of its own. We cannot create a face of pollution in real life enough to visualize an antagonist we can 'defeat', unless you generalize a concept of rich old fat men. It is the same way with Darkness in Sky. It's probably not 'evil', but it's not okay.

🚫 [Darkness]: an ancient evil

But we have confirmed that it does absorb Light, which is a concrete definition of 'darkness' in the dictionary.

[Darkness]: content that absorbs Light ✅✅✅

And because of that, we've come full circle! 🎊🎉🎇

Wait, we didn't address if our Darkness is or is not synonymous with the definition "opposite of Light"...

Well, maybe it's better we hold off on that thought for now. Because in order to say it's the opposite of Light, first we have to Define what Light is. And I think its safe to say we won't get there for a while. 😅

You're crazy if you actually read all of this, but thank you so much.

I think I'm really going to enjoy making these, so long as I can make them s l i g h t l y coherent. Have a good day/night yall!

#sky children of the light #sky children of the light lore #sky cotl #sky cotl lore #sky game #sky lore #sky rambles #skychildrenofthelightlore #skychildrenofthelight #skycotl #skycotllore #skycotlstory #sky children of the light story

[skykid-nadir]

This is likely old news to the lore community, but I'm thinking about the fanon names for the Elders and their Hebrew meaning, and there are some interesting parallels:

Daleth: Gateway to Alef

Ayin: to see

Teth: the serpent

Sahmek: glory

Tsadi: Righteousness

Lamed: Wisdom/teacher

Alef: One with God

Resh: used to denote the grave of a spiritual leader

#sky cotl #sky children of the light #sky: cotl #sky: children of the light #sky elders #sky lore #sky daleth #sky ayin #sky teth #sky sahmek #sky tsadi #sky lamed

[baudshaw]

The great cucumber sandwich incident of 2022

#sky cotl #skycord #Sky discord #thatskygame #sky children of the light #sky: children of the light #sky #sky:cotl #sky: cotl #that sky game #sky lore

[babbletaels]

I get the feeling when playing sky that this is a world where everyone is some form of bad. This is a world that facilitated its own demise, not an innocent world that was struck by evil or disaster. The elders, while some seem nice to us, all have something burdening them: either they encouraged the light harvest, benefitted from it, or remained silent long enough for it to be too late. The people who lived in the realms were just trying to live their lives in a corrupt world, so they're innocent, but at the same time they did nothing to stop the corruption, so they're not inherently good either.

#sky: cotl #sky cotl #sky children of the light #sky lore

[bearandmoon]

I would love to have a home in sky where I can put my items and enjoy music and sound of nature😌Sketch of a cozy home 🌙

#sky children of the light #sky cotl fanart #concept art #illustration #sky cotl #sky fanart #skychildrenoflightfanart #sky星を紡ぐ子どもたち #sky lore #creature design #interior design #concept design #house design #cozy home

[manuellarts]

So I drew Resh again⎯⎯⎯

#art #drawing #artist #artists on tumblr #digital drawing #manga #fanart #digital art #digital artist #that sky game #sky lore #skyblr #sky cotl fanart #sky cotl #sky children fanart #sky children of the light #king resh #resh #sky cotl resh #digitalart #character design

[twinsoftriumph]

the sky concept art masterpost!

i compiled a bunch of official sky concept art in a google drive folder because i got incredibly sidetracked looking at elder references. it’s not all illustrations; there are a few 3d images from the game’s development. i also included dev notes when available as well as the slides from the art of sky presentation.

google drive folder here - note that this is mostly for easy viewing and saving the images if you want. i’ll be listing the direct sources below

tom zhao’s sky concept art - a classic. over 200 images. concepts for basically every major aspect of the base game. includes lore, story beats, environment concepts, etc.

art of sky cotl - a presentation by yuichiro tanabe + cecil kim on the art of sky. i believe some of these images are the ones you can see in the office area? the slides themselves are in the folder but the important commentary is all here!

7 days of sky - includes concept art from tom zhao so you will see some repeated images here. this one has the most dev comments. goes through all realms minus eden as well as elders + creatures. originally posted on twitter as 7 separate threads but this is the easiest to view

tiffany hayashi’s tumblr + concept art - some early development sky concepts. commentary taken from tumblr, the concept art page is the art by itself with a few not posted to tumblr

ashley coad - some concept art for various seasons. i didn’t include the flight promotional pic in the folder since it’s Promotional but it’s there if you want to save it

IGN first - a 2017 article with some dev comments and images of sky in development

feel free to suggest anything i might have missed!

#thatskygame #sky: children of the light #sky: cotl #sky星を紡ぐ子どもたち #sky cotl #ooc #sol talks #sky lore #sky concept art #oh right just to be CLEAR. i definitely missed stuff like things in videos/dev talks/blog posts but #i kinda cant be bothered atm to compile those #so if anyone wants to add them ur more than welcome and if i Do add them myself itll be a while before i do lmao